


The Need for a Dream Catcher

by swensicle (operation_swanqueen)



Series: Swan Queen Week 2015 oneshots [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Swan Queen Week 2015, Swan Queen Week Day One: Bed Sharing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-12
Updated: 2015-07-12
Packaged: 2018-04-08 23:45:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4325448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/operation_swanqueen/pseuds/swensicle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Regina is having really bad nightmares, and Emma helps her fall asleep</p><p>For Swan Queen Week Day One: Bed Sharing</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Need for a Dream Catcher

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so on tumblr, this posted a few days early from my Queue, but i deleted it. Its on here now, and the other ones will be here too

_"You're not my mom! You're the Evil Queen! I thought you had changed, but I guess not. I guess villains can never change. I should have known." Henry yelled at her. She didn't know what she had done wrong. She tried to tell him she hadn't done anything, but she couldn't open her mouth. She couldn't move. Suddenly, she couldn't breathe. She felt like tar was filling her lungs, she was choking. She began scratching at her her throat. Her nails grew long and jagged, and she was cutting long gashes down her throat. Blackness was seeping in through everywhere, filling up the room, drowning her. She tried to scream, but her mouth was still glued shut. Her eyes were stinging. The only thing she could hear was Henry's words echoing in her mind, they seeming to be bouncing off the walls, changing from Henry's voice to Emma's voice._

"Villains can never change... Villains can never change... Villains can never change"

_  
They repeated infinitely as she drowned in blackness, blood dripping from her throat and eyes and she heard a blood curling shriek. _

 

 

 

Regina awoke, panting and sweating, tears dripping down her flushed cheeks. Her sheets were tangled and she felt like she hadn't gotten any sleep in forever. Her heart was racing and she was wide awake. No, thought. I **have** changed.

 

But what if she hadn’t?

 

What if it was just a facade that had fooled everyone, including herself?

 

She laid down, dried tears sticky on her cheek, and tried to fall back to sleep. Yet the moment she closed her eyes, the screams of thousands children rung in her ears, and she flicked her eyes open again, shuddering. That's how it happened for the rest of the night.

 

By morning, there were deep bags under her eyes, her hair was a rat's nest, and she almost burned the house down. She was cooking pancakes for Henry, and some for Emma when she came to drop him off at school. It had become ritual for Emma to stop by before school for breakfast, and to take their son to school. In return, Emma would bring Henry home with takeout from Granny's or Mary Margaret would through something quick together for them for dinner. She drifted off while putting the batter on to the griddle. Henry yelled. She snapped awake and the whole griddle was ablaze.

 

"Fuck." She muttered. "Henry, go call your mother and tell her to get over here immediately."  She snapped.

 

He dashed off as she tried to put out the flames. She grabbed the nearest cup, filled it with water, and doused the thing. She repeated the action a few more times before the orange turned to grey, and smoke filled the kitchen. The doorbell rang. Coughing, she went to answer it. It was Emma.

 

"Regina! What happened? Henry said there was a fire! Are you okay? Do you need help?" She asked, her green eyes panicked and worried, but also with a hint of suspicion.

 

"Yes, there was a fire. But don't worry, and please take your hands off of my shoulders and stop shaking me-"

 

Emma blushed and took her hands away, looking sheepish.

 

"- I put out the fire just before you got here, dear. But thank you for arriving here on such short notice."

 

Emma nodded and they entered the scene of the crime.

 

"Shit, Regina. How did this happen?" She eyed Regina and chuckled.

 

"Oh my god, how much sleep did you get last night?" She laughed.

 

Regina blushed.

 

"Why would I tell you how much I slept last night? Miss Swan, I'm sure it is unnecessary to know my sleeping patterns." She chided, a playful glint in her tired eyes.

 

Since when did she make jokes with Emma Swan?  She caused this fire because she fell asleep while pouring pancake batter onto the griddle. For a Queen, she was becoming pretty domestic. The scary part was that the domesticity of their whole little family situation was what she enjoyed the most. Emma sighed and looked into her eyes. The emerald orbs were boring into her own, and she couldn't help but look back into them with her own warm coffee eyes. The eye contact was intense, to say the least. She felt chills crawl up the back of her neck.

 

"Okay, I've gotta go, but I would suggest that you don't go to the office today, and try to get some sleep. You look like a walker." Emma advised, not breaking the gaze.

 

"A what?" The brunette asked.

 

"From the Walking Dead... Nevermind, just consider my advice, you look dead. I'm coming over later to check up on you. I don't want you to die by way of fire. That's still my job." She chuckled and pulled her keys out of her pocket and after Henry said his goodbyes, shut the door.

 

Regina supposed it wasn't safe for her to drive, she would probably kill someone, or herself. And like Emma said, that was her job.

 

And now she had a whole day to ponder when and why she had become so comfortable with Emma that they shared jokes. And meals. And why she enjoyed Emma's sloppy, ice-cream-for-dinner, make-yourself-at-home, childlike presence in her home and her life so much. Regina grabbed one of Henry's comic books and laid down in her bed. The little colorful drawings of superheroes and villains were nostalgic and easy. There was no grey. It was just white and black. She wished life was as simple as that.

  
  
  
  


_This time she was back in Neverland. She was hanging from one hand from the edge of a cliff. Henry was stooping over her, but instead of the sweet little boy she and Emma had raised, he was a Lost Boy. He was taunting her._

_"This is what happens to kids when they get raised by the Evil Queen. This is what happens to kids who were raised with neglect and lying. I'm a Lost Boy because of of you, Mom" the last word was spat, like he loathed the thought that she had ever been his mother. Then there was a shadow pulling at her legs, prying her fingers off of the edge. The shadow morphed into her mother, and then to Leopold, and then to Rumpelstiltskin, and back to her mother._

_"Love is weakness... I've made my monster... The darkness likes how you taste... Bad girl..." The voices taunted her as the last of her grip slipped and she fell into an endless abyss of shrieks and screams and cries of pain._

__  
  
  


She shot awake again, the howls ringing in her ears, making her head pound. She felt like she was going to throw up. Now she felt even more tired than before. Her mouth was parched and she felt extremely dizzy. She took some deep breaths and stood up, stumbling downstairs. She needed something that was soothing but wouldn't put her to sleep.

 

Nothing.

 

So the day went on like that. She would find a book or a television show or write a little, end up dozing off, and wake up more tired than before and feeling ill.

 

At 5:30, Emma and Henry arrived at the mayoral mansion. Henry just flew through the door with a bag of take-out, but Emma stayed at the threshold, eyeing Regina with concern. Regina was pale and her eyes were bloodshot. She wobbled a bit and her eyes were out of focus.

 

“Regina, what’s going on? Are you okay, because you look shittier than when I was here this morning, and I told you to get sleep.” she was genuinely concerned for her well being, and it made Regina’s chest grow warm.

 

She shook her head and led Emma to the sofa. They sat, and Regina cleared her throat before blushing deeply and replying, “I don't understand why you need to know.”

 

"Has it got something to do with Henry? Or Robin?" Emma looked down.

 

"Or me?"

 

"Don't flatter yourself, Miss Swan." She said flatly.

 

Emma sighed and shifted.

 

"C'mon, Regina. I just want to help you. You are obviously in pain, and it's my job to make you... Not in pain any more... You know, 'cause of the whole 'Savior' thing. And your happy ending. Like how can you be happy if you're unhappy?..." Emma rambled awkwardly.

 

Regina swallowed a chuckle. Emma was such an idiot sometimes. But why couldn’t she just leave her alone?

 

“I’m fine. The only issue here is that you keep pestering me to tell you about my personal life.” she glowered.

 

“Geez, Regina. Fine, I’ll go, but when something happens to Henry because you fell asleep, don’t expect any sympathy from me” Emma snapped, getting up to leave the mansion.

 

Good one, Swan. Using the Henry card? Regina knew Emma knew what effect that had on her. God, she hated this woman sometimes.

 

“Fine.” she growled. “But only because of Henry. It’s not because I trust you, or anything.” she growled.

 

They both knew that was a lie. Regina trusted Emma more than she had trusted anyone in her whole life, post-Daniel. But she was willing to pretend, if it meant that this wouldn’t grow to be anything unnecessary.

 

“Shoot” Emma offered.

“I’ve just been having nightmares, nothing to worry about” she said.

 

Emma’s face immediately softened, and she looked empathetically into the deep dark eyes that were searching her for judgment and teasing. But there was none. There was understanding and ever more concern. She knew what question was coming next, so she breathed deeply and tried to remember that they were only dreams.

 

“What were they about? If you’re not ready to tell me, that’s okay.”

 

With any other person, she would have ignored them or laughed it off, but Emma was different. Emma understood her and accepted her and trusted her. Emma was always there, ready to support her or stand by her even when her boyfriend and parents sided against them. Ready to sacrifice anything the minute Regina was in danger. And even though she didn’t like to admit it, she had come to respect and care for the woman, and would do the same for her.

 

“Henry was saying that I would never change, that I would always be the Evil Queen, and so were you. My mother and Rumpelstiltskin and Leopold were tearing me off of a cliff. There were-” she paused to hold back tears and to keep herself from reliving it. She shuddered.

 

“-There were these screams, as if millions of children were being beaten and cut. they were so loud. It made me realize how many innocent children I had hurt, and how I can never make that right. And…”

 

She didn’t realize she was crying until Emma brushed a tear from her cheek and wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

 

“I want to stay here tonight. Be here in case they come back again.” Emma decided.

 

Regina was humiliated. She didn’t mean to be so vulnerable. God, now Emma was going to sleep over, make sure she was okay. Because she was so weak and broken that she couldn’t sleep unless someone else was there with her. She was such an idiot.

 

“No, Emma, I don’t want to put you out.” she was flustered.

 

“Look, I get not wanting to accept help because you don’t want to seem vulnerable or weak, but you need it Regina, so I’m not giving you a choice. Besides, you wouldn’t be putting me out, I offered.” Emma demanded.

  
  
  


_She was pinned down on a rough mattress, Leopold holding her down. There were magic coils around her wrists, and her mother’s cackling echoed around the stone room._

_“This is what happens to bad girls, Regina, love. You were a very bad girl. You betrayed your son and Emma and the two idiots. You betrayed everyone. Because you will always be Evil. You were wrong. Evil truly is born, Regina, not made. You simply needed someone to awaken the darkness inside of you.”_

_Leopold was kissing her neck, her chest. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t speak. The screams started again, louder and clearer than before._

_“Those are the screams of all of the people you’ve fooled into believing you were anything but Evil. Do you hear that one?”_

_One shriek became louder than the rest. It was the sound of a young boy, one who believed in her and she broke his heart. Henry._

_“Or this one?”_

_This one was more feminine and older, but just as agonizing. It sounded like someone who had believed she could change and someone who loved her enough to care when she hadn’t changed. Emma._

_No. No. This wasn’t real. But Leopold was opening her blouse, and she couldn’t breathe, and the Screams were tearing her apart. Her mother was cackling as she tightened the bonds. Regina couldn’t see, she was gasping for air, and her whole body burned._

  
  
  


“Regina! Regina! Wake up!” Emma was prodding her and whispering in her ear.

 

She shot up and looked around wildly, gasping for breath. And Emma’s hand was stroking her hair and gripping her hand.

 

“Breathe, Regina. It was just a dream.” she instructed calmly.

 

“Emma…” she sounded breathy and panicked.

 

Emma walked over to the other side of the bed and climbed in.

 

“Wh...what are you doing?” she asked worriedly.

 

“I’m gonna sleep with you.” she shrugged

 

Regina looked alarmed.

 

“Oh god no! Not like that! Just so you can get some sleep. Your bed’s easily big enough for like five people, so I’m sure two will be fine.” she assured the brunette with a chuckle.

 

“No.”

 

But because Emma was Emma, and had no respect for boundaries or personal space, continued to climb in.

 

Regina just turned around and laid down. She refused to let Emma see her cry for a second time.

 

“Ok, ‘Gina. Don’t flip out, but I have always found spooning quite comforting. Makes me feel safe. So if you don’t mind, we’re going to spoon. Not weird, just a friend helping her friend fall asleep, ok?”

 

“You have got to be kidding me.” she groaned.

 

But again, Emma ignored her. Great.

 

Regina was too exhausted to care. So when Emma cupped Regina’s body with her own and wrapped an arm around her protectively, Regina fell asleep almost immediately. She forced her eyes open just so she could experience the feeling of being safe and protected, like Emma wouldn’t let anything hurt her, for just a little bit longer. She squirmed and pulled away, to convince herself and Emma that she wasn’t enjoying it. Emma just pulled her closer. She let the feeling flood her senses. Emma’s smell of cinnamon and coffee and burnt cookies was intoxicating, and made feel embarrassingly warm and fuzzy. And the way their bodies melded so perfectly together, like they were made just for this. It was terrifyingly beautiful…

 

***

 

When Regina, awoke, Emma was still asleep. Their legs were tangled together, and Emma’s arm was still hugging her close. There was blonde hair in her mouth, and Regina allowed herself to find it adorable. She had slept through the night, besides the one nightmare. But other than that, she felt rejuvenated. She felt as if that was the deepest sleep she had gotten in a really long time. She didn’t dare move. She was too content just laying there in the arms of Emma Swan.

 

Her very own Dream Catcher.

  
  


 

__


End file.
